


On Soundwave's Cassettes

by Red Dragon (Red_Dragonn)



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 16:56:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16453787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Dragonn/pseuds/Red%20Dragon
Summary: Written for an anon on tumblr.





	On Soundwave's Cassettes

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: I'm 90% salt and 10% sources, at this point. Read on only if you don't mind me yelling about the Cassettes and how badly the narrative treats them. 
> 
> And, oh, might bear saying: I'm pro-Decepticon through and through. I don't like Functionism (or any of its real-life, related ideologies), and the Autobots espouse the system that stands for it. If you're on board with discriminatory practices for any reason, you're not going to like this, and good; may someone break your fucking jaw.

> anonymous asked:
> 
> Please tell us your opinions on SOundwave's cassettes??

* * *

OHOHO STRAP IN FOR A LONG LONG RIDE.

  * DISCLAIMER
  * some of this is the narrative’s fault
  * some of this is the writers’ fault
  * some of the fault lies with the autobots 
  * But i want to make it _very fucking clear:_ the blame for this does not and should not lie with any of the cassettes themselves
    * We adapt to belong to the situations we’re put in, and this is a clear case of that 
    * just look at Rumble and Frenzy back in Megatron Origins
    * they weren’t children then and they clearly aren’t children now.
    * they just act like that out of a combination of writers’ biases, characters’ biases, and action-befitting-expectations
    * you are _lying to yourself_  if you think you’ve never done things because people expected it from you
      * how many times have you clapped at something you didn’t much care about because other people were clapping?
      * how many times have you worn something uncomfortable because it was ‘the thing to do?”
      * how many times have you modified your language or behavior to fit what is ‘expected’ of you because it’s expected of you?
      * a lot of fucking times, that’s my point



Now i’m going to break it down by group, because it does vary by group: 

 _ **animal cassettes**_ and  _ **humanoid cassettes**_

Their treatment varies _incredibly_ in the narrative. 

Ravage, especially in MTMTE/LL, is treated like a wise, intelligent, mentorly **pet**.  
Buzzsaw and Laserbeak are at best sassy parrot types who don’t do much but snap at each other and at worst **silent background props** who interrogate people sometimes.  
Ratbat went from being a _Senator_ to barely more than treated like a vaguely sentient **camera**.  

We’re going to do this in sections, and so I unveil the first rant: 

## Humanoid Cassettes

Rumble and Frenzy, by virtue of the fact that they look like small regular Cybertronians, were spared the dehumanizing aspects of the animal cassettes’ treatment. That doesn’t mean they were spared the entire set of bullshit, though. They’re so infantilized in the narrative, and it doesn’t even make _sense._

Why do they act like children? 

I mean, sure, it’s fun sometimes, but why do two perfectly capable mechs 

  * who grew up separately from Soundwave 
  * who they were able to meet Megatron on a prison transport after participating in a _violent revolt_  
  * who were perfectly able to hold their own in the Arena in Kaon



why do they act like _children_  now?

[images: two reaction images i saved from some issue of the Optimus Prime comics because they sound like me and my brother, but which perfectly illustrate how _childish_  we’re expected to believe Rumble and Frenzy act.  
\- One shows Rumble and Frenzy standing next to one another, and Rumble is saying, “does this mean we’re not in trouble?”  
\- The second is two panels, showing Rumble and Frenzy standing near one another. Rumble says, “Uh, _hey_. We can explain _everything.”_ In the second panel, Frenzy is pointing at Rumble, and saying “ _He_ did it.”]

why are they behaving like stereotypical tv siblings? they may be close to one another--they’ve had four million years to get close to one another, sure--but they aren’t children, they aren’t siblings, they are _teammates_ , and this shit is ridiculous. 

not only that, but we see it all the time. I love the fanon impression of them as Soundwave’s kids, it’s adorable, but they’re not children. They may be Soundwave’s responsibility, but only so far as any team leader is responsible for their teammates. Yet Soundwave often bears all the responsibility for the actions of his cassettes, even when other individual Decepticons on teams get punished for their own actions. **Rumble and Frenzy essentially get stripped of any and all culpability for their actions, and therefore are stripped of their potential to act.**

I’m going to break that down a bit because it’s a kind of complicated sentence and I’ve been informed that I don’t know how to simplify things into statements that make sense to people who live outside my head. 

**Rumble and Frenzy essentially get stripped of any and all culpability for their actions, and therefore are stripped of their potential to act.**

  * Rumble and Frenzy do not get to take responsibility for their actions. Instead, responsibility is laid entirely on Soundwave’s shoulders.
    * This implies that their actions are, essentially, Soundwave’s fault. 
    * This implies that Rumble and Frenzy are not capable of acting without Soundwave’s impetus. 
    * This implies that Rumble and Frenzy are not equal to Soundwave in potential for action because they are lesser than Soundwave
      * if they do something and it was done _under Soundwave’s orders,_ then Soundwave should bear responsibility. 
      * but if they did something and it was _outside of Soundwave’s orders_ or, worse, _against_   _Soundwave’s orders,_ then Soundwave should not be taking responsibility.
      * Rumble and Frenzy are both adult mechs, and if they are capable of taking actions that merit punishment, either legal or otherwise, then they should be the ones who are taking that punishment. Not Soundwave. 
  * Because the responsibility is given to Soundwave, any action that the two of them takes is considered Soundwave’s action. 
  * This strips Rumble and Frenzy of the potential for their actions to have any personal merit whatsoever. 
  * it takes from Rumble and Frenzy the idea that they could act as individuals, rather than as solely Soundwave’s team members. 
    * despite this! we see all the time that Rumble and Frenzy act on their own as their own subgroup team. 
    * Soundwave definitely didn’t tell them to start selling Cybertronian weapons to the humans in the Optimus Prime comics, but the two of them definitely did that. 
    * However, ultimate responsibility for this--which broke a treaty that spanned between factions and should have been dealt with by an impartial team--was instead handed over to Soundwave. 
    * **They are not children.**
    * **They should not be being treated like children.**
    * **What even the _fuck_.   
**



**TLDR; Rumble and Frenzy are horrendously infantilized and it is bad because before they were put under Soundwave’s command, they were allowed to be their own people in the narrative, but now they are not permitted to take responsibility, culpability, or control of anything that they do in their lives.**

Can you tell that I’m pissed yet. 

Moving on to the ones I’m significantly angrier about!

## Animal shaped Cassettes

one thing i want to make _very clear_  right off the fucking bat: 

Beastformers are not animals.

Rattrap is a _person_. Minimus Ambus is a _person_. Ratbat _used to have a humanoid alt mode._ Ravage, Buzzsaw, and Laserbeak are all shown to have existed as separate entities and though they may be beastformers, they _are not animals._   **These are all people.**

Let me say that again, because I cannot say it with enough feeling. I would, if I could, reach through the screen, ball my hand up in the cloth of your shirt, pull you off of the ground, and _shout this directly in your terrified faces if I could_. 

##  _THE CASSETTES ARE NOT PETS. THEY ARE PEOPLE. THEY ARE NOT PETS. THEY ARE NOT PETS. THEY! ARE! NOT! PETS!_

How fucked up would it be if people treated Rattrap as Starscream’s pet rat? How fucking bizarre would it be for Minimus Ambus to be treated as, I don’t know, Rodimus’s standoffish pet dog? Not even in a petplay-style fic, which is something else entirely, but as their _personalities_ to be changed to fit that of an animal? for them to eat out of bowls on the floor, or for people to constantly offer them treats or touch them without warning?

[Image: a panel from More than Meets the Eye issue #47, with Ravage, Tailgate and Getaway in Mirage’s bar. Getaway is shining a flashlight at Ravage.  
Getaway: Ha! _Caught_  you!  
Tailgate: Raage!  
Ravage: Turn that off. I wasn’t _hiding_ , you dolt. I was _drinking_. This is my spot.]

Imagine Soundwave drinking engex from a bowl on the floor of a bar, rather than being given a table. Kinda fucked up, no?

[A set of three panels from More than Meets the Eye #32, with Nautica petting Ravage on the head in the first one, Ravage swiping at Nautica’s face in the second, and Megatron and Skids in the third. Megatron looks distinctly proud, and Skids looks pissed.  
Nautica: Maybe she was just scared. Is that right, poppet? Were you scared? Did the noise and the lights scare you? Aww, you’d make a lovely pet. Those big bright eyes and--  
Ravage swipes at Nautica, cutting her off.  
Nautica: Hey!  
Megatron: Hah! Ravage isn’t anyone’s pet.  
Skids: Correct. He’s the _enemy_.  
Megatron: Yes, and he’ll have to account for his actions later-- _after_ he’s helped sniff out the crew.]

Imagine Nautica said that to _Minimus Ambus_ and tell me it’s not a distinctly fucked up thing to say or do to someone. 

Meanwhile I want to draw a tiny amount of attention to the dynamics at play in this exchange: 

  * both autobots treat Ravage like a non-sentient
    * Nautica calls him a _pet_ , which is honestly offensive as hell no matter _how_ you look at it
    * Skids talks over his head to Megatron as though Ravage is incapable of comprehending that they’re talking about him over his head
  * Megatron is the only one to allow Ravage any kind of personhood, and Megatron is the only Decepticon (or ex-Decepticon, but honestly, he still _clearly_  espouses Decepticon ideals of equality at this point)
    * Megatron acknowledges that Ravage is responsible for his own actions
    * Megatron acknowledges that Ravage is not a pet and by extension that he is a literal person rather than a toy of some kind



That doesn’t really transfer, though. I don’t remember if Brainstorm (the other Decepticon-slash-Autobot on ship) ever interacts with Ravage, and I don’t remember if Drift does, either. And the rest of the characters are all Autobots (or Cyclonus, who doesn’t really count as either but most likely embodies very similar biases as the biases of the Autobots.) And most of them tend to treat Ravage somewhere between where Nautica and where Skids did. 

~~(Shit, it’s tiring to be so angry consistently _and_ put it into words. I’m not even half done.)~~

Alright, moving on from Ravage for a bit. Let’s look at **Ratbat** , shall we?

Ratbat was the Senator who Soundwave, Ravage, Buzzsaw and Laserbeak worked for. He was forcibly converted into a cassette and pressed into Soundwave’s command. 

It’s been established that Ratbat was a _piece of work_. A Functionist who mistreated Ravage, Buzzsaw and Laserbeak for their alt modes and treated them like his toys, and then had them forcibly modified to work with Soundwave as cassettes. It’s not outright stated, but evidence would suggest that the three of them were considered Disposable class, and Ratbat took advantage of that to use them how he saw fit. Before being forced to join Soundwave's team and accept Soundwave's command, he was Soundwave's boss and functionally his master. 

Yet in the earlier parts of the IDW continuity, he existed in a space without even having a voice, without being any sort of asshole, nothing. Just working as a silent observer who would go on recon now and again. 

I'd be willing to put that down as "he's been told to keep his bastard mouth shut for long enough for it to stick," except that after the Dark Cybertron arc, he's around and trying to set himself up as in charge until Arcee kills him. The Decepticons are perfectly willing to deal with him as their leader, interestingly enough--and the Autobots are willing to see him as a threat. That said, he's still treated for a long-ass time as little more than a glorified camera. 

Who else gets that treatment?

Ah, yes, Buzzsaw and Laserbeak. 

We get very little of Buzzsaw and Laserbeak doing anything, really, outside of being Soundwave's personal attack raptors. In the Optimus Prime comics, they provided sarcastic commentary, but most of the time they're there to exist as little more than backdrop characters.

Which is fucked up! Because they're people! They aren't just sitting around playing statue for kicks, it's because the writers and also the other characters dismiss them and do not expect any sort of sentience from them. It's been established that Megatron saw them as equal and that was part of why Soundwave was so dedicated to him (via TFWiki) and that they do speak and have opinions. 

[A panel from exRID #47 where Buzzsaw and Laserbeak mock Brawl.   
Brawl: Ha! What good is that  _tiny gun_ gonna--Wooop! Hey, somebody help--I'm  _outta control!_  
Buzzsaw: Squack! It's like I always say, Laserbeak--there's _nothing_ like a brave warrior!  
Laserbeak:  _Right!_ And  _he's_ nothing like a brave warrior!]

So they might be assholes. But the fact that they can be assholes means that they! do not! count! as! pets!

[A panel from Optimus Prime #11, with Buzzsaw.   
Buzzsaw: I know I  _shouldn't_ , but I get homesick sometimes. I hope Cybertron is  _okay_.]

Toys and drones don't have complex emotions. That right there, that's a description of a complex  _set_ of emotions. He can understand why being homesick for the Cybertron that mistreated him is  _bad,_ but he also is still homesick, and he feels uncomfortable about it. Fricken understandable--from a  _person_. From an animal, not so much. 

But  _beastformers are not animals._

They are  _people_. 

Yet how much focus, really, have we seen on them? Outside of their intersection with Soundwave, they might as well not exist. Even then, before exRID I don't think I even remember seeing either of them  _talk_. Ridiculous. 

I could go on, but it's been three hours, and I'm tired. Hope you enjoy this. 


End file.
